Preparing for the Tournament
After meeting Ishizu in the Domino museum, Kaiba spent the past few days organizing the tournament he was planning. He even decided to add a few new rules to the game. It was now time for one last test. Kaiba had designed a new model of the duel disk and wanted to try it out before selling it. The model was still worn on the left wrist, but it no longer had to be thrown across the field to produce a hologram. It was like having a playing field on the arm. There were also portable projectors designed to position themselves on the field. There was no longer any need for oversized dueling arenas.
The dueling test was underway. A robot designed with the tactics and strategies of a duelist was the opponent Kaiba wanted for the last test. He even wanted his three Blue-Eyes White Dragons to be in the robot's deck. This would be dangerous. Kaiba had even shut down the safeguards, putting him at risk of injury. It was a risk he was willing to take. He wanted to see his Egyptian God card in action. Ishizu warned Kaiba that Obelisk would be too powerful to control, but he wouldn't know for sure until he played the card in a duel. And what better monster to use it against than the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon?
The robot made the first move. "Draw card. Accessing duel database for optimal battle. Set one monster face down."
It was Kaiba's turn. "I'll also play a card face down. Next, I'll summon the mighty Battle Ox. Destroy his monster!" The Battle Ox's attack revealed the robot's hidden monster. It was Cyber Jar.
"Monster: Cyber Jar. Special effect 1: Destroys all monsters on the field. Special effect 2: Both players summon up to five monsters. Summoning two monsters to the field." The robot played the cards face down in defense mode. Kaiba summoned four monsters to the field. There was Dark Zebra, Maha Vailo, Boar Soldier, and Hitotsu-Me Giant.
"What a digital dummy," Mokuba said, watching the match. "The duel robot gave Seto a huge lead."
It seemed that way, but the robot was designed to mimic the strategies of the best duelists in the world. "Analyzing new tournament rules. Must sacrifice two monsters to summon Blue-Eyes White Dragon to the field."
"What?" Kaiba gasped. The robot's Wall of Illusion and Aqua Madoor were sent to the graveyard as Blue-Eyes White Dragon appeared on the field. "Now I'm in trouble."
"Turn off the machine before he gets hurt!" Mokuba cried.
Kaiba expected the robot to attack, but it remembered that Kaiba still had a card face down and thought it was a trap set to destroy the Dragon. With nothing to protect the Dragon, the robot ended its turn. "A big mistake," Kaiba said. "I sacrifice a monster to summon Dragon Seeker in defense mode."
The robot analyzed Dragon Seeker and learned it had the ability to instantly destroy any Dragon on the field once it switched into attack mode. "Processing countermeasures. Set one card face down onto field. Summon Lord of Dragons to the field. Lord of Dragons' special effect: Protects all Dragons from magic, trap, and monster cards. Dragon Seeker's effect negated."
Kaiba certainly didn't expect that. He could no longer attack or destroy the Blue-Eyes White Dragon as long as Lord of Dragons was on the field. He didn't want to risk attacking Lord of Dragons either, so he switched all of his monsters to defense mode to protect his life points.
"Processing battle strategy. Activate magic card: Flute of Summoning Dragon. Magic effect: Summons up to two Dragons from hand onto field. Processing. Summon two Blue-Eyes White Dragons from hand."
"There's no way!" Kaiba gasped.
The robot wasn't finished. "Activate magic card: Polymerization. Fuse three Blue-Eyes White Dragons to form Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. Analyzing tournament rules: Fusion monster cannot attack on the same turn it was created. Must end turn."
As Kaiba stared at the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon standing before him, he wondered if this was how Yugi felt when he was up against it. He remembered that Yugi came close to defeating the Ultimate Dragon, but couldn't do it. Now it was Kaiba's turn. This was the moment he was waiting for. He drew his card and it was the Egyptian God card. By sacrificing three of his monsters, Obelisk the Tormentor came into play. To strengthen his Egyptian God, Kaiba sacrificed his two remaining monsters. Obelisk's attack power had climbed to infinity. And because he was so powerful, opposing cards were useless against him. Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon was vulnerable to attack. With his mighty Fist of Fate, Obelisk crushed the Ultimate Dragon.
The robot malfunctioned from the overload of power and self-destructed. Mokuba watched in awe as he witnessed the power of his brother's new monster. Kaiba looked at the card in his hand. He was confident that with an Egyptian God in his deck, he would be unstoppable. All he had to do now was obtain the other two and he would have the most invincible deck.
Emily and Yami went to the square and saw a lot of people present. No denying they had all received an invitation requesting their presence. "The invitations of the tournament would be announced tonight," Emily said. "Ishizu was right."
"I don't know if everything she said is true, but I do know this: I must enter and win in order to face my destiny."
Emily looked away. "Just promise me you'll be careful, Yami. Because if the events of the past are to happen again, then this could be dangerous for you and Yugi." But she had to be careful as well. Now that the Millennium Star is whole again and its powers are slowly restoring, whoever it was that tried to steal the Millennium Puzzle was also going to try to claim the Millennium Star as well.
Yami brought out his dueling deck. "You must trust me, Emily. My deck has never let me down. And as long as Yugi and I stay connected and believe in the Heart of the Cards, we can overcome any opponent and face our destiny."
As worried as Emily was, she trusted Yami. "And you can count on my help." Then she and Yami both heard faint cackling. They looked around, but didn't see anybody who looked suspicious.
Then they heard the voice of a familiar friend. "Yugi, Emily, there you are!"
"It's Mai Valentine," Yami said, seeing her running towards them. Max was joining her.
Emily wasn't too thrilled. "Oh, joy."
"I know you guys missed me!" Mai said cheerfully.
"It's such a shame we don't see each other very often," Emily told her.
"Yes, it is," Mai said, placing her arm over Emily to hug her. "You're looking gorgeous, Emily. Is this a date?"
"We're friends, Mai."
Yami tightened his eyes. "I assume the both of you have come here for the tournament?"
"But of course," Mai said, finally letting Emily go. "I presume you got an invitation as well?"
"Yes, but it didn't say who it was from. Do you or Max know?"
Mai shakes her head. "We have no idea. Everyone we spoke to got an anonymous invitation."
Max cleared her throat. "But there is a buzz going around that it's a kid with a ton of cash and an obnoxious attitude. My money's on Kaiba."
Yami's eyes widened. "That must be why Ishizu told me to enter," he was muttering to himself. "If the events of the past are to happen again, then I must face Kaiba."
"What are you mumbling about?" Mai asked. "Anyway, no one knows for sure who's hosting this new tournament."
"I suppose we'll find out eventually," said Emily.
"It's safe to say it's not Pegasus again," Max said gratefully.
"Speaking of Pegasus," Yami was saying, "this is beginning to look like Duelist Kingdom all over again." The girls agreed as they took notice of some familiar faces in the crowd. Max and Emily were disgusted as they saw Weevil Underwood and Rex Raptor looking at them in a romantic way. Mai saw a new young duelist named Esper Roba and said he dueled using psychic abilities. They even saw Mako Tsunami eating grilled fish. There were a lot of new and old faces in the crowd, but everyone knew that this tournament was going to have some new twists.
As if on cue, Kaiba's face began showing up on all of the television screens. "Greetings, duelists. Welcome to the town of Domino. But more importantly, welcome to my tournament."
"I don't know which is bigger," Mai was saying, "his ego or his melon on the big screen." Max and Emily agreed that it was his ego.
"I see you've all received your personal invitations, which means you had enough brains to show up here tonight. You are all elite duelists. You'll also be playing by some new rules. For example: you must duel using my latest duel disk model."
"Check that out!" someone in the square said.
"Man, KaibaCorp's got the latest products!"
"Also, before each duel, both duelists must anti up their rarest card and the loser of the duel must forfeit their card to the winner. My competition will make Pegasus and his Duelist Kingdom tournament look like a joke." Then the wind blew across the square and Kaiba's helicopter lowered itself a little. He stepped outside, but remained close to the door. I knew you'd come, Yugi. We'll see which one of us is the number one duelist. He raises his voice and makes one last announcement. "Don't forget to register and pick up your duel disks because exactly one week from today, my tournament begins!"
"You're on, Kaiba," Yami said.